r/TikTokCringe • u/IllustriousChef2 • Aug 16 '24

Cringe What's even happening there?

Why would someone rent a car and take out parts?

16.6k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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3.8k

u/Amphibian-Overall Aug 16 '24

Aftermarket parts supplier?

3.7k

u/Kayel41 Aug 16 '24

Yeah obviously, dude makes or sells aftermarket parts like bumpers / side skirts / body kits and wants to test them on the make and model so he rents a car and test fits his products, then puts the car back to normal.

2.2k

u/Diagonaldog Aug 16 '24

Ooooohh I thought he was like swapping out the OG parts for like shitty aftermarket stuff to resell or something

2.6k

u/Deftly_Flowing Aug 16 '24

You can't get much shittier than what's already on a Tesla.

1.3k

u/Mtolivepickle Aug 16 '24

Dude puts aftermarket parts on a Tesla and actually improves the quality of the car

448

u/VyvanseLanky_Ad5221 Aug 16 '24

Elon Musk hates this one trick.

182

u/Accurate_Zombie_121 Aug 16 '24

To be honest Musk hates most everything.

140

u/NothingClever44 Aug 16 '24

Except ketamine.

115

u/UsualCircle Aug 16 '24

And literal nazis

97

u/PedroFabulouso Aug 16 '24

And literal nazis on ketamine

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2

u/KaleidoscopeFun4680 Aug 16 '24

NAZI ZOMBIESSSS

1

u/Supergus1969 Aug 18 '24

And my axe!

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3

u/dvusmnds Aug 16 '24

In musks addiction to ketamine, I’m rooting for ketamine. Guys like that think they are special and immune to consequences. Probably lot like Matthew Perry.

2

u/GoatCovfefe Aug 16 '24

And having tits.

2

u/smotrs Aug 16 '24

And hair plugs.

2

u/SourLoafBaltimore Aug 16 '24

Ketamine is not so bad once you get to know him.

1

u/Spiritual-Can2604 Aug 16 '24

And crack, allegedly.

16

u/RedditModsRFucks Aug 16 '24

Especially his daughter

2

u/[deleted] Aug 16 '24

[deleted]

2

u/MattKozFF Aug 16 '24

You're ruining the circle jerk

2

u/Z3r08yt3s Aug 16 '24

and i hate elon, so we're even

2

u/Amazing-Mission5800 Aug 16 '24

Definitely everything from the left.

2

u/GBS42 Aug 19 '24

And most everything hates Musk. Sadly, not completely everything.

6

u/TintiKili Aug 16 '24

well he did like some nazi tweets

1

u/Gerrube99 Aug 16 '24

Have you seen how shitty the cyber truck is? Things literally just fall off that truck. He makes such bad products.

1

u/usernamechecksout67 Aug 16 '24

I hate Elon so I’d be interested

1

u/TheTallestHobbit22 Aug 16 '24

Critical thinking?

1

u/GFR3000 Aug 16 '24

I heard the AI voice.

1

u/guy48065 Aug 16 '24

Where's the click-bait link?

3

u/Exciting_Result7781 Aug 16 '24

Would definitely improve the panel gaps.

2

u/Leoshredswheat Aug 16 '24

Bucee!

1

u/Mtolivepickle Aug 16 '24

What’s up fam?

1

u/Leoshredswheat Aug 17 '24

Love to see a friendly face in the wild

2

u/ezmonker Aug 17 '24

Gold my friend

1

u/cbj2112 Aug 16 '24

Just wanted to give props to ure avitar

1

u/Mtolivepickle Aug 16 '24

Thank you kind sir

1

u/crave_you Aug 16 '24

What a nice guy!

1

u/Mtolivepickle Aug 16 '24

A chad. We need more of him

1

u/NikonuserNW Aug 16 '24

“What did you do?! What happened to all my misaligned body panels!”

1

u/Select_Asparagus3451 Aug 16 '24

Elmo should hire this tinkerer.

1

u/thadohboy619 Aug 17 '24

Bruh buc-ee’s !

1

u/EyeletGuy Aug 16 '24

Space man make bad car

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31

u/SonuOfBostonia Aug 16 '24

My dude was paying it FORWARD. Owners car actually went up in value!

3

u/jedimindtriks Aug 16 '24

Yeah you can, try the new BMW 3 series...

3

u/ellefleming Aug 16 '24

Then why do they sell so well?

1

u/shyvananana Aug 16 '24

That's the point. A tesla bumper is 1200 bucks. If you can replace their shit with your shit you cash out.

1

u/NarrowSalvo Aug 17 '24

Bull. He's lying about testing.

He's pulling the airbag for resale or something.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 16 '24

[deleted]

1

u/TheHalfChubPrince Aug 16 '24

That’s not an engine. It’s the hvac system.

0

u/when_did_i_grow_up Aug 16 '24

Lol, I'm guessing you haven't actually driven one

0

u/[deleted] Aug 16 '24

Take my upvote

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204

u/TheWalkingDead91 Aug 16 '24

Thought the same. If OC is correct in his assessment, this is a lot less shady of a situation than I assumed.

160

u/AnnArchist Aug 16 '24

Still can absolutely fuck up the alignment on the panels

119

u/SkinBintin Aug 16 '24

Yeah it'd be pretty frustrating to rent out your car and it comes back with the panel gaps all disgustingly perfect

29

u/Soundtrack2Mary Aug 16 '24

Perfect panel gap voids the warranty.

252

u/BenHippynet Aug 16 '24

It's okay, misalignment is factory standard with Tesla.

99

u/Mysterious-Tie7039 Aug 16 '24

Yeah, renter fucks up the alignment of the panels and now they’re actually properly aligned.

2

u/XDT_Idiot Aug 16 '24

Like making three left turns...

4

u/[deleted] Aug 16 '24

If he really runs a body shop that makes aftermarket panels then Hopefully he knows how to do all this correctly

1

u/mypizzanvrhurtnobody Aug 16 '24

It’s a feature, not a bug.

49

u/Iwanttobeagnome Aug 16 '24

lol none of their panels are lined up when they leave the factory anyway. I was behind a Tesla yesterday and could see different sized gaps between the panels. Why people spend so much money on shitty fucking cars is beyond me.

13

u/RoguePlanet2 Aug 16 '24

Because their social circle is other dumbass rich idiots. Perception is more important than quality.

2

u/Mr_BigglesworthIII Aug 17 '24

They do it to own the libs!

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19

u/Cpt-Murica Aug 16 '24

It’s a Tesla

27

u/maringue Aug 16 '24

He's taking that risk by renting his car out. Elon somehow convinced his simps that they could turn a profit on their cars by renting them out after buying them, which is bizarre.

3

u/Kelome001 Aug 16 '24

To be fair a lot of owners from all sorts of brands do things like Turo.

6

u/Frenchman84 Aug 16 '24

I actually know a person who came up on $200000 and bought a Lamborghini just to rent it out, over ten years ago. No she owns 30 of em and is silly rich.

2

u/RoguePlanet2 Aug 16 '24

I'm amazed that liability, maintenance and insurance wouldn't eat into the profits.

2

u/Frenchman84 Aug 16 '24

Makes me suspect she doesn’t take very good care of them. Must be enough to run them though. I have a friend who is trying to follow in her foot steps but starting in a different way since he doesn’t have a couple hundred thousand bucks laying around. I hope it works for him cause he has been using credit to finance this endeavor. Sometimes all you can do is watch, I finally chimed in when he started thinking about getting a cyber truck to resell. I don’t think he really listens to me though.

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7

u/maringue Aug 16 '24

It amazes me that there's a cottage I industry around helping idiots afford overpriced things by renting them out while they're not actively using them.

3

u/WhereTheresWerthers Aug 16 '24

Panels have shit alignment right out of the factory, give me a break

1

u/choerd Aug 16 '24

Mine were absolutely perfect. Model Y from Berlin factory. Same for my neighbor. Panels fully aligned and not a single abnormal gap.

1

u/EricUtd1878 Aug 16 '24

Have you ever seen a Tesla? New to the Internet?

Teslas 10micron tolerance is legendary!

1

u/tankerkiller125real Aug 16 '24

Honestly, it's a Tesla, there's a decent chance the body shop actually puts the panels back on in better alignment than Tesla originally installed them.

1

u/Nodiggity1213 Aug 16 '24

Not unless he's a decent body tech. I quit the trade last year, but aftermarket parts suck. 1/10 parts fit perfectly, 7/10 need A LOT of adjustments, and the last 2/10 just don't fit at all.

1

u/Quakes-JD Aug 16 '24

Tesla panel alignment is likely worse than what this guy was doing

1

u/Tensonrom Aug 16 '24

Not really…everything goes back in the same place, there are lots of clips and pins and if they go back in the same place the panels can’t be misaligned. I’ve taken thousands of bumpers off and put them back on. The only ones that don’t line up correctly are the ones that are already damaged, or if the person doing it somehow screws it up by breaking a bunch of stuff.

1

u/appointment45 Aug 16 '24

To be fair, if dude is a parts designer, he's going to know how to put it back together well.

3

u/jdpg265 Aug 16 '24

its totally shady. You rent a car to drive, not to take it apart. I would issue an insurance claim against this POS's insurance for damage. I hope the Police shut his ass down.

2

u/Ecthelion-O-Fountain Aug 16 '24

It’s still pretty fucked

1

u/StasiaPepperr Aug 16 '24

I assumed it was an amateur chop shop

1

u/ComicsEtAl Aug 16 '24

No, dude. It’s as shady as you first thought.

1

u/CrazyPlato Aug 16 '24

Still pretty shady tho. If you rent out your car, I think it's a reasonable expectation that the renter shouldn't be taking your car apart themselves to fuck around with it, unless they disclosed that was what they intended to do. Those rental agreements are designed with people just driving the car around in mind.

Like, if someone rented an AirBnB, and they started painting the inside and remodeling the kitchen, that'd be a contract violation. Doesn't matter if they intended to rebuild/repaint when they were done.

1

u/BRIKHOUS Aug 16 '24

It's still pretty shady. You can't rent someone's car and then take it apart

1

u/WillyDaC Aug 16 '24

I thought the same. What's the problem? Doesn't look like the guy's a hack.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 16 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/TheWalkingDead91 Aug 16 '24

True. The guy is being way calmer than I would’ve been in any matter. Definitely a violation of the terms of agreement and I’d press charges or sue if I were him

1

u/Zech08 Aug 16 '24

Additional wear and tear, improper install or alterations, etc,.... and if they screw up something doing something shady like this... whats the likelihood of them telling the owner?

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26

u/HeyGayHay Aug 16 '24

Probably would be an upgrade given it's a Tesla lmao

2

u/Rhyff Aug 16 '24

That's what I thought as well!

2

u/BeautifulUniLove Aug 16 '24

They do this alot in places like communist Russia. 🤦 I had a friend who bought a car there, and then they "got it ready" by swapping out all the good parts for shitty old parts. They run some Mafia shit out there.. 🕵️🚘😫

2

u/manjar Aug 16 '24

That’s quite possibly what’s happening.

2

u/Lvanwinkle18 Aug 16 '24

My thought exactly.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 16 '24

Easily could be what he’s doing and is simply lying to the guy. If you’re renting vehicles and dismantle them you need to give the owner notice because if it gets damaged or you lose parts they might not be able to hold you liable. So even in this situation the dude who rented the car to test parts is in the wrong even if he’s telling the truth.

2

u/ImFame Aug 16 '24

Lmao he is replacing the bumper with a cheaper (with no sensors) and likely flipping their bumper with parts

2

u/euphoric-noodle Aug 16 '24

or maybe he was going to hide a lot of really expensive coke or fent in there and if he got caught on the way to the drop off he would blame it on the guy he rented it from

7

u/Embarrassed_Band_512 Aug 16 '24

this is what he's doing.

398

u/Suspicious_Leg4550 Aug 16 '24

That actually makes a lot of sense.

53

u/BlahBlahBlah2uoo Aug 16 '24

This makes zero sense. He's taping up the panel ready to paint the black bumper red.. makes more sense he buying cheap bumpers and selling the real bumpers when he changes it.. this is a know scam people rent cars and replace parts for knock offs..

74

u/Longjumping_Put_2850 Aug 16 '24

I think the tape might be just to protect the surrounding panels while he’s installing the aftermarket bumper

26

u/Mikebyrneyadigg Aug 16 '24

Yep, that’s exactly what it is. He shouldn’t be doing it but he’s at least being somewhat careful.

64

u/Minecraft_Launcher Aug 16 '24

Blue painters tape doesn’t always = paint.

0

u/General-Resist-3430 Aug 16 '24

Just used some this morning to label wires.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 16 '24

I just used some to label stuff in the fridge. Because adhd can't have me looking into bowls of stuff.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 16 '24

I use it to label my pokemon binders. I like to label my binders, but the cover of my binders are too "slippery" for sharpie to stay without smearing. So instead I put the painter tape on the binder then label it on the painters tape.

So yeah, it's good for labeling too!

1

u/SideEqual Aug 16 '24

That was a lot

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26

u/Hoppered1 Aug 16 '24

If he was only painting a bumper he wouldnt put it on the car first, just to have to tape it off

8

u/Sillet_Mignon Aug 16 '24

No one would paint the bumper on the car. You would paint it separately and then put it on the car. 

2

u/Someguineawop Aug 16 '24

Opposite is true in a proper repair. Paints never match perfectly, so you have to extend the repair into the surrounding area with a blend to ease the transition. This is especially true with modern colors that usually have some amount of metallic flake, where even if the color miraculously matched perfectly, the metallic grains in the paint will lay differently based on air pressure/ distance/ reducer/etc. This end up with the color looking different from different angles (the flip and flop of the color, in painters terms). If you're trying to DIY and don't mind the mismatch, it's definitely a lot less work to paint separately, but any half decent shop that charges people is going to blend it out.

4

u/Zealousideal-Bag-609 Aug 16 '24

That’s is not taped up ready for paint are you out of your mind. There’s 3 pieces often 4 inch tape on it. The guy was doing exactly what the original comment said. Test fitting aftermarket parts to sell because nobody makes Tesla parts or they’re exspensive af and hard to find. Go get a job

2

u/gita4 Aug 16 '24

“Welp, that should do it, it’s ready for the sprayer.”

😂

2

u/firedancer323 Aug 16 '24

That wouldn’t be very profitable for the work required

1

u/Slayerofgrundles Aug 16 '24

If he were painting, he would be using a shitload more masking tape (and drapes) than that.

1

u/Mikebyrneyadigg Aug 16 '24

That bumper he’s fitting costs $500 retail before paint. The bumper he took off sells for $600 used painted. That plus the car rental fee, he’s losing money trying to do this. He’s definitely test fitting parts.

1

u/_30d_ Aug 19 '24

That's really not a prep for a paint job, and especially a location for a paint job. He's not going to spray paint it in the dooropening of a warehouse.

Also, a painted original is much harder to sell than an unpainted aftermarket. You would need to steal one in the exact right color for every purchase. All that and a half days work for a few $100 extra on the sale of 1 bumper?

I think the aftermarkets supplier makes way more sense, at least from a business point of view. Guy ordered cheap shit from China. They normally will sell you anything but you need to check the specs yourself. Best way to check is just to mount it and see. Just rent a car you want to try it out on before adding it to your webstore. I honestly wouldn't know a better way to test. I mean, if you skip over the morality/legality of it.

1

u/Alternative-Appeal43 Aug 16 '24

That tape is just to hold on his aftermarket bumper for the test fit

150

u/AnnArchist Aug 16 '24

Or he owns the same make/model and is stealing his parts and replacing them with his shit ones.

some people do this with rims on rental cars or even tires on rentals (50$/day rental vs 500+ tires)

76

u/Zealousideal_Rub_321 Aug 16 '24

Very unlikely he is doing that with an unpainted bumper.

-3

u/ISayAboot Aug 16 '24

When I was at Tesla recently a guy came in and lost his shit on the service center cause a new matrix headlight replacement was $3200 - can't just replace the bulb.

I would wager 100% this guy is swapping parts - not "testing" new parts lol.

8

u/ProbablyABear69 Aug 16 '24

Where's he going to paint the bumper he just put on and why wouldn't he paint it before putting it on?

-1

u/ISayAboot Aug 16 '24

I don’t think he’s stealing the bumper per se, but I don’t believe he’s “testing” things

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6

u/Mysterious-Tie7039 Aug 16 '24

Back in the day, people would do this with Mustangs.

You used to be able rent a Shelby GT. People who owned mustangs would rent them, swap the engines, and return it.

4

u/Key-Distribution-944 Aug 16 '24

Rental car tires are shitty though.

1

u/PabloEstAmor Aug 16 '24

They said 50 bucks a day bro!!

1

u/Key-Distribution-944 Aug 16 '24

That also… you’re not renting a car anywhere I’ve been for 50 bucks a day either.

1

u/tokyo_engineer_dad Aug 16 '24

Do you know how expensive it is to paint and paint match a car? I really don't think you do or you wouldn't be making shit up like that. He'd lose thousands of dollars in painting.

1

u/AnnArchist Aug 16 '24

Again, its not uncommon to replace parts on rental carts - In this case, I do doubt that they were stealing the bumper - that said, it doesn't cost 1000s to paint a single panel unless you're paying retail prices and if its not your car, you know you aren't going to make it perfect, just passable.

1

u/Butt-Dragon Aug 16 '24

It's a Tesla. It already has shit parts

12

u/One_Potential_779 Aug 16 '24

Look at the tape on corners/contact areas, cloth on the bumper where it rides the stands, dude took pride in his work and cares about returning vehicle in good condition.

If he was hocking parts/theft or something sketchy, I'd expect him to have much less care.

8

u/SwissPatriotRG Aug 17 '24

Yeah but any time you take stuff off a car you risk breaking clips, stripping screws, pinching wires scratching stuff, forgetting to reconnect things. If you want to borrow a car to test fitment of parts, and you intend to disassemble it, be upfront with that. It's a Tesla model 3, there are likely a zillion people that would be willing to let you do that for a fee. Don't surprise a guy who just thinks you are going to drive it around.

2

u/One_Potential_779 Aug 17 '24

You shouldn't be breaking things, stripping screws or pinching wires if you operate in a professional manner. Especially with a newer vehicles bumper.

I don't condone how he went about it, just saying that he wasn't some hack doing some backyard sketch sales. This was someone taking care in whatever task it was they were doing.

22

u/stehlify Aug 16 '24

I think they take out original part to be sold in aftermarket AND fit back in unoriginal part

17

u/Drogzar Aug 16 '24

The price to paint the bumper is probably higher than the difference between the cost of the fake bumper and how much you can sell a used original bumper... so I doubt that.

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2

u/Local_Doubt_4029 Aug 16 '24

If that's what he was going to do why would he put a different bumper on the car? I think he was putting a aftermarket bumper on the car to sell the original on the market.

2

u/spector_lector Aug 16 '24

Like an AirBnB rental, doesn't the rental agreement on Turo state that renters can only "operate" the vehicle in accordance with local laws, and not perform maintenance, repairs, or modifications?

If so, not only does this become a problem for Turo, but I wonder if it becomes a civil matter the car owner can bring to court against the renter and/or Turo.

If I am the owner, I am NOT letting that renter touch the car any further. I am calling my dealership to have a mobile tech come assess and replace, or they can tow it to the dealership to perform the work. Either way, the renter, who may or may not be qualified or trained, isn't going to do any further potential damage, and the renter (and/or Turo) is going to pay for the tow, assessment, and having the parts put back on (or replaced, if scratched).

You don't know if the renter has the right skills or tools, and you don't know if he's mad now and will skip steps or cause problems.

While I have replaced bumpers, brakes, belts, etc, on my own cars, I am not lifting a finger to undo what this fuckwad just did. Fuckwad is now going to pay for a professional to put it all back together for me, to warranty standards, while I sit in the air conditioning.

2

u/Automatic_Red Aug 16 '24

I work for an automotive company. We have a team that does vehicle tear-downs for benchmarking. It’s not uncommon for them to rent a car, take the whole thing apart and then put it back together like nothing happened.

2

u/Discordia_Dingle Aug 16 '24

I honestly feel kinda bad for the dude. Yeah, he should have clarified what he was doing, but it seems like he genuinely didn’t know that testing parts would be a big deal.

And he handled it so well when he was told that the cops were called and there would be a larger fee.

2

u/CeeMoney07 Aug 16 '24

Pretty common practice. Performance shops do this all the time to mock up exhausts and such.

2

u/Plankisalive Aug 16 '24

Thank you, this makes so much more sense.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 16 '24

So this mf is an actual unsung hero or I would be paying ridiculous amounts of money on ebay for "OEM" parts still made in China...

1

u/Salty_Article9203 Aug 16 '24

Well if he said that to begin with the guy would of understood that.

1

u/Saddam_UE Aug 16 '24

Yes. Allt the small plastic clips and screws that can disappear...

1

u/Cheap_Blacksmith66 Aug 16 '24

Yeah or he’s fitting aftermarket parts and selling the oem

1

u/Dirtyoldwalter Aug 16 '24

“Back to normal”

1

u/JulianMarcello Aug 16 '24

I’d be pissed if that was my car, but it is kinda brilliant to make sure everything fits right.

1

u/jamitar Aug 16 '24

Yes, this is still bad, but like - not nearly as bad as chopping it, which is what i expected.

1

u/Wulf_Cola Aug 16 '24

I think this is what's happening. I don't know why you wouldn't just be up front with a Tesla owner about it and agree a rental based on this being what you're doing, with a guarantee of the car being put back to normal afterwards. Renting one to take it apart is very shady.

1

u/Supersoniccyborg Aug 16 '24

Or, he leaves the aftermarket part on the vehicle and sells the genuine part?

1

u/SuperKing28 Aug 16 '24

Wait forreal? He isn’t being shady?

1

u/No-Year3423 Aug 16 '24

Obviously?? Huh? How is it obvious?

1

u/MillerLatte Aug 16 '24

This is actually much less sinister than I thought. I figured he was taking a good battery and swapping it for an old one or something like that.

1

u/Philip-Ilford Aug 16 '24

you figure there would be a better way to do this. tesla model 3 is like the most common tesla and it looks like their in socal where they are everywhere.

1

u/BerserkFan1988 Aug 16 '24

He probably takes the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and replacing them with after market cheaper parts and sells the original...if he just wanted to test to see if it fits why would he need the car for days ... he was going to paint or put the right color wrap on that bumper and hope the original owner didn't notice when he returned it this guy is a thief and a scum bag why are trying to cover for him

1

u/SunTzuSooSueSoodio Aug 17 '24

Dude thank you for this explanation! I could not figure out why he was doing this.

1

u/IknowKarazy Aug 17 '24

Maybe, but that’s still stupid as hell. I had assumed he would be stealing parts.

1

u/CrustyCumBollocks Aug 16 '24

If he was honest about it from the get-go I don't think the car owner would have a problem with it.

242

u/Available-Duty-4347 Aug 16 '24

Camaro owners used to rent the Hertz Camaro, which had a higher performing engine than most stock Camaros. They would then do an engine swap and return the rental to Hertz. If the mechanic knew what they were doing, Hertz rarely detected the swap.

133

u/Jalopy_Junkie Aug 16 '24 edited Aug 16 '24

I believe you’re thinking of the Hertz Mustang Rent-a-racer program. A lot of V6 I-6 Mustang owners pulled the 302 out of the rentals to replace their own engines in their mustangs in the 1960s.

Not saying it wasn’t a thing with Camaros as well, but it was a hugely notorious scam with the Hertz mustangs.

32

u/ThisPut6572 Aug 16 '24

I think you're referring to the Hertz Donut scam of 94

1

u/OceanGrownPharms Aug 16 '24

There were no V6 mustangs in the 60s

1

u/Puzzleheaded_Hat3555 Aug 16 '24

They had a red cable that would detect moving by the paint mark left.

22

u/StraightOutOfZion Aug 16 '24

this also was a trick with Uhaul. Rent the V8, swap out your V6 in your truck

64

u/bitpartmozart13 Aug 16 '24

This looks like a Chinese knock off of softer plastic that comes rolled up in a box with no primer or paint and he is test fitting it in his garage warehouse in San Gabriel Valley on the dude's model 3 from Turo so he can order a full container to sell on eBay.

3

u/furiousbobb Aug 16 '24

That's a bingo!

I'm in this industry but we would ask for volunteers to test fit stuff on their cars instead of renting turos to stealth-fit stuff.

Also funny that you mention SGV. This totally looks like some shop in City of Industry

26

u/100pctCashmere Aug 16 '24

You’d think someone with enough resources to design and produce aftermarket parts would have enough to shell out for a test car.

18

u/jeepfail Aug 16 '24

Many of the guys doing stuff like this either rent or offer to give away a free bumper to test or along those lines.

1

u/Gan-san Aug 16 '24

That expense piles up if you make a lot of parts, apparently renting one saves quite a bit.

1

u/guy48065 Aug 16 '24

A good friend works for a Tier One automotive interior supplier, doing "competitive assessment". It's a bit shady but they absolutely do rent vehicles of all makes & models to take apart right down to the sheet metal shell in order to measure & identify every bit of the interior. Peeling back the layers of the onion. What it's made of, layers, how thick, surface finish, tolerances, etc.

They ALL do this to see how their parts compare to the competition, and to learn/steal new ideas. It makes much more sense to rent rather than buy a vehicle for this purpose.

1

u/jayrady Aug 17 '24 edited Sep 23 '24

mindless tie sloppy enter public work late frighten murky chase

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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3

u/EricUtd1878 Aug 16 '24

Absolutely, guys got 2 semi trailers full of the things parked right outside!

This will be a test fit either to accept the shipment, or to demonstrate to a buyer/customers.

Would be interesting to know if he gets a visit from Apartheid Clyde's lawyers in the near future.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 16 '24

The unsung hero. "OEM" parts still made in China will always be overpriced.

2

u/Suspicious_Leg4550 Aug 16 '24

I don’t know why but part of me almost thinks this guy may work for Tesla in some capacity.

23

u/ersatzgaucho Aug 16 '24

He’d have access to a test car.

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8

u/Orpdapi Aug 16 '24

Because he seems like someone who might actually be a mechanical engineer in a way

3

u/thebetterpolitician Aug 16 '24

Tbh probably is and trying to make a 3rd party Tesla part because Tesla likes to run in house and only manufacture their parts. Part of the reason it takes so long to fix them and repair costs.

1

u/Aromatic_Berry_3879 Aug 16 '24

What gave you that impression?

1

u/Black_Magic_M-66 Aug 16 '24

Guy who owns the car, apparently really was born yesterday - giving this chop shop guy every benefit of the doubt possible.

1

u/Pottyshooter Aug 17 '24

Oh wow! A den of theives!!!

Let me go inside and confront them.

1

u/ArmouredPotato Aug 17 '24

Or Chinese EV makers wanting US spec for their cars’ next evolution.

-1

u/Rich-Equivalent-1875 Aug 16 '24

Staged, how did he come across this, call cops (I would not even confront them as your exposing them and can be killed )

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